Brightcove adds support HTTP Live Streaming for Apple iOS devices

Internet video host Brightcove, among the first to begin supporting iPhone-compatible H.264 video and HTML5, is now moving to support Apple's open HTTP Live Streaming format as well, hammering another nail into the coffin of Adobe Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight.

Launched among the features of its "Brightcove 5" online video distribution platform, HTTP Live Streaming enables mobile devices to stream video while adapting to changing bandwidth availability as the user moves between WiFi and mobile networks. Brightcove is also strengthening its support for HTML5 video distribution with advanced analytics that enable broadcasters to access the same types of information about their viewers that Flash currently offers.

Apple's video streaming standard goes mainstream

Apple added support for HTTP Live Streaming in iOS 3.0 in the summer of 2009, after proposing the technology as an open standard to the Internet Engineering Task Force in May.

Rather than using a specialized video streaming protocol such as RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol), HTTP Live Streaming delivers video as short segments of video files using the same protocol that web browsers use. This enables it to work seamlessly through existing firewalls the same as other web traffic.

Additionally, HTTP Live Streaming can make multiple versions of a video available, enabling the client player to dynamically select higher or lower quality video segments on the fly as its network speed improves or degrades.

Apple's HTTP Live Streaming is similar to Microsoft's Smooth Streaming server product tied to its Silverlight client plugin. However, Apple's version is not attached to any particular proprietary encoder, server or player client. Instead, it exists as an IETF standard that anyone can implement.

Apple has started using HTTP Live Streaming to broadcast its own media events, including its recent "Back to the Mac" session, making them available to both desktop clients using QuickTime X and mobile devices running at least iOS 3.

Earlier this year, a third party filed suit against both Apple and Microsoft, claiming that both of their streaming technologies infringe upon its patents; that case is still being argued.

Further assaults on Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight

In supporting HTTP Live Streaming, Brightcove gains the ability to serve long format video to iOS devices using the same technology Netflix uses to stream video to iPad and iPhone users. This shift comes at the expense of Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight.

in 2008, Netflix joined Major League Baseball and NBC as high profile adopters of Microsoft's Silverlight video streaming technology, but following the broadcast of the Summer Olympics, NBC reverted from Silverlight to Flash; MLB similarly decided to drop Silverlight.

All three have since adopted HTTP Live Streaming to reach iOS users, and Microsoft has even added support for HTTP Live Streaming to its IIS Smooth Streaming servers. In addition to Netflix, other Flash-centric video streaming services such as Hulu (and now Brightcove) have similarly added support for HTTP Live Streaming.

While any client should be able to add support for HTTP Live Streaming compatible with QuickTime X and iOS, neither RIM nor Google have implemented this, causing MLB to warn users of its MLB At Bat application that "the BlackBerry and Android versions of the application do not currently support the Live MLB.TV streaming because these devices do not support the IETF HTTP live streaming specification for adaptive bit rate streaming that MLB.com uses to provide game video. As devices incorporate support, the feature sets will come into line."

Apple's influential installed base of iOS devices can now claim success in largely defeating proprietary standards, not just static video playback via Adobe Flash, but also the next arena of dynamic streaming.

Microsoft's Silverlight, once buoyed by the prospects of serving as a key video streaming architecture (much as Flash gained popularity as a static video distribution platform), has now been relegated into a minor role as a way to create software for the company's Windows Phone 7 devices.

The company's new focus on HTML5 rather than Silverlight has created a groundswell of panic among Windows developers who have invested heavily in Microsoft's proprietary plugin as an alternative to web standards, prompting Microsoft to assure them it will continue to support Silverlight even as it focuses on HTML5. However, the writing is on the wall for technologies that aren't supported by iOS, including Flash and Silverlight.

Isn't this a little sensational to say "another nail" in the coffin? My impression is that it's still the incumbent video delivery protocol. Not on iOS devices, of course, but it was never there in the first place to kill off.

As with everything else that Apple has developed to replace Flash, it is extremely complex to develop http live streaming. You probably have no idea how many unix commands, make files and yum installs are required to encode and segment a video then configure variable streaming for multiple devices. The thing that made Flash so ubiquitous for video delivery is that CS Suite was simple to use and anyone could be streaming video within minutes. Just upload and go. Before you say 'another nail in the coffin' let's see you actually produce a single http live streaming file first.

Sure big time companies have the resources to deliver content regardless of difficulty but ask a regular videographer or graphic designer who probably doesn't even have their own server, let alone sudo privileges to make unix applications and encode on the command line, it just ain't gonna happen.

As with everything else that Apple has developed to replace Flash, it is extremely complex to develop http live streaming. You probably have no idea how many unix commands, make files and yum installs are required to encode and segment a video then configure variable streaming for multiple devices. The thing that made Flash so ubiquitous for video delivery is that CS Suite was simple to use and anyone could be streaming video within minutes. Just upload and go. Before you say 'another nail in the coffin' let's see you actually produce a single http live streaming file first.

Sure big time companies have the resources to deliver content regardless of difficulty but ask a regular videographer or graphic designer who probably doesn't even have their own server, let alone sudo privileges to make unix applications and encode on the command line, it just ain't gonna happen.

The tools will improve, someone is bound to stick a GUI interface on it.

I don't normally pay attention to the authors here, but this article is a blow to the journalistic integrity of AppleInsider. Though many of the articles here are decidedly, pro-Mac, they don't normally come across as though a 15 year old Apple fan boy wrote them. "Nail in the coffin" of Flash? It's time will probably come at some point, but why is the author so keen on hastening its demise? I have long made a living from Apple and Adobe's contributions to technology. Pitting the two against each other serves no purpose here at your fine website.

The tools will improve, someone is bound to stick a GUI interface on it.

Maybe, but I think the reason that Apple has no interest in enabling their technologies for the common user is that they want to keep the technology out of the hands of non programmers. If they make it really complicated but supply the mainstream consumer with lots of content, they effectively control the market. If it was easy, anyone could do it. Apple doesn't want that because other companies might be able to do a an end run around and threaten their new distribution monopoly.

Maybe, but I think the reason that Apple has no interest in enabling their technologies for the common user is that they want to keep the technology out of the hands of non programmers. If they make it really complicated but supply the mainstream consumer with lots of content, they effectively control the market. If it was easy, anyone could do it. Apple doesn't want that because other companies might be able to do a an end run around and threaten their new distribution monopoly.

Control what market? Online streaming market? I don't see that it's theirs to own.

Great - DED haters back again. When will they ever learn to behave and leave him alone?

And yes. 'A nail in coffin' of Flash and Silverlight is exactly what this is. If you want to have a clue, you might read up on what Adobe has said about Apple on the issue of Flash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fshrking

I don't normally pay attention to the authors here, but this article is a blow to the journalistic integrity of AppleInsider. Though many of the articles here are decidedly, pro-Mac, they don't normally come across as though a 15 year old Apple fan boy wrote them. "Nail in the coffin" of Flash? It's time will probably come at some point, but why is the author so keen on hastening its demise? I have long made a living from Apple and Adobe's contributions to technology. Pitting the two against each other serves no purpose here at your fine website.

Great - DED haters back again. When will they ever learn to behave and leave him alone?

It's a safe assumption that anyone coming here for the purpose of making personal attacks on a writer is being paid to do so by some company that writer has pissed off with unflattering words about that company. Just a sign that raw nerves have been struck.

Great - DED haters back again. When will they ever learn to behave and leave him alone?

And yes. 'A nail in coffin' of Flash and Silverlight is exactly what this is. If you want to have a clue, you might read up on what Adobe has said about Apple on the issue of Flash.

No it's not. Video is just video. Flash isn't video. Flash represents what you can do with video. If you want a simple player, use whatever. If you want additional features like real time encoding, broadcasting, peer 2 peer bandwidth sharing, secure RTMP/RTMFP, etc, you go with Flash because nothing else supports it other than maybe silverlight or Java. People who don't know technology shouldn't be talking out their asses about what it's used for and how it's going to be impacted by whatever new buzzy trend is going around.

Look, if you develop with Flash you most likely will not reach the average iPhone, iPod, or iPad user. I say "most likely" because there are "solutions". I say, "the average" user because most people who buy iOS devices do so because the device does what "the average" user wants right out of the box without employing additional "solutions". The overwhelming popularity of iOS devices means you are excluding a huge market.

"The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying "And another thing?" twenty minutes after admitting he's lost the argument." - Douglas Adams

Isn't this a little sensational to say "another nail" in the coffin? My impression is that it's still the incumbent video delivery protocol. Not on iOS devices, of course, but it was never there in the first place to kill off.